Fortress Dark and Stern

"""This book describes the extraordinary experience of people on the Soviet home front during World War II; specifically the devastating anguish of the war, and Soviet citizens' grim determination to prevail... Much has been published about the wartime Soviet Union since 1991, but this book's forceful style and its use of Soviet sources ensure it will have lasting value in World War II scholarship. The use of personal anecdotes and statistical evidence is laudable."" -- Zachary Irwin, formerly with Penn State Behrend, Library Journal ""Fortress Dark and Stern presents a definitive social history of the Soviet Union at war. Impeccably researched by two of the most distinguished historians in the field, this book conveys the triumphs and tragedies of what was a total war like no other. It is a major contribution to the study of the Soviet Union and the Second World War."" -- Lynne Viola, author of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial ""How did Stalin's Soviet Union claim victory in the Second World War? In Fortress Dark and Stern, two consummate historians at the peak of their powers investigate the Soviet people's epic struggle on the home front to arm, feed, and clothe soldiers who marched against fascism from Stalingrad to Berlin. Based on prodigious archival evidence, memoirs, and new scholarship, this beautifully written book tells a story essential for a new generation of students and citizens."" -- Dan Healey, University of Oxford ""To be a Soviet civilian during the war with Germany was to strive and to suffer. Many faced bad or impossible choices. Fortress Dark and Stern describes the predicaments, fates, and accomplishments of the millions behind the lines in unforgettable detail."" -- Mark Harrison, University of Warwick ""Drawing on a vast array of new archival sources, Wendy Goldman and Donald Filtzer offer the most comprehensive account to date of the Soviet Home front during World War II. The authors' novel findings about the role of the Stalinist state during the war will give rise to debates and disagreements among historians. No future study of the Soviet Home front and the Eastern Front generally will be complete without reference to this book."" -- Oleg Budnitskii, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow ""For decades, historians have debated how the Soviet Union managed to withstand the immense blow dealt by the German invasion in 1941. As Fortress Dark and Stern persuasively argues, it was the home front that assured Soviet survival in 1941 and, ultimately, victory in 1945. Drawing on rich, newly discovered archival materials, this book shines a bright light on the lives and the labor of millions of ordinary citizens, predominantly women, who emerge as the unsung heroes of the Soviet war epic."" -- Jochen Hellbeck, Jochen Hellbeck, author of Stalingrad: The City That Defeated the Third Reich"